Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Wow, welcome to summer track temps! It was easily 90+ all weekend with humidity. NASA was handing out bottles of water to everyone going through the tech/impound shed all weekend!

The results - 1st of 5 in TTA on Saturday and 2nd of 9 in TTA on Sunday. Good results, but my personal times were disappointing to me. I'm sure the heat had a LOT to do with it. I'm trying to figure out if running 100oct tunes on the stock turbo during the midwest summer heat is a good idea or not. I was holding about 26psi in 5th and ran a best of 1:35.2 this weekend. For reference, last year I set the TTB (lower class) record at 1:35.3 in cooler temps on my 21psi 93oct tune. So I was definitely hoping to top that by a much larger margin

I was running in my 'developing TTA' trim this weekend. Meaning basically my usual TTB trim but with about 50whp more thanks to an AMS FMIC, AMS LICP, AMS MBC and AMS 100oct tune. I also tossed on a hotchkis RSB to see if that would help as I had it lying around. It's definitely not an optimal TTA setup and a work in progress as I'm not using all the allotted points so I'm leaving some time on the table to be sure.

As for the RSB I put on for the weekend, I'm not sure if it helped or hurt me. I had understeer on corner-entry all weekend and it seemed to get worse; probably because I was driving it harder! Being my own suspension guru - and no expert - I might have made things worse with moving the RSB to full stiff mid-day Sat. I stiffened the rear suspension more on sunday to try and aid rotation with minimal effect. Later I did have another TT driver tell me I was lifting my rear tire on turn-in a lot! I'm planning new suspension next year and definitely someone to help me set it up!

Aside from the minor improvement in times, the car really performed flawlessly. The water temps, oil temps & brakes all were in check and not any different that previous weekends this year. I was confident in the setup and pleasantly happy with the results! I ran about 150 on-track miles this weekend and I pushed hard on ALL of them. If they had given me more tracktime, I would have taken it too!
All this thanks to the parts & tuning from AMS Performance along with engine oil protection and brake fluid from AMSOIL!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Mid-year maintenance! Time to flush out those drivetrain fluids as we're approaching the halfway point in the 2010 track season. July is a busy month with a quick turnaround for me, so getting to this early. In case you're wondering, yes I did use that old mustard bottle to squirt in rear diff fluid!

Fluids flushed

Evo Rear Diff Fluid

Evo ACD Fluid

Evo Trans Fluid

Truck Trans Fluid

Also, leaving the car in 'TTA' format for my next NASA event. It'll be in the same format as we ran last Sat at the AMS trackday (same track too) - with some minor changes.

I still battled some understeer so I'm putting my old Hotchkis Rear SwayBar back on the car. That combined with an updated alignment planned for Friday @ GRD in Chicago and I'm hoping for some good results.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Made the trip Saturday to Autobahn Country Club to instruct for an AMS Performance track day. Helped out a few students and ran a few sessions myself as well. Temps were high and the car performed well once I got all the intercooler hoses tightened back up. I ran in my developing 'TTA' form and ran some 1:36-1:37 laps with a passenger so I was a good 250lbs over my min weight. I will be back this weekend running TTA with NASA - so it was good testing! Got several changes planned this week...

Thursday, July 8, 2010

I was switching my exhaust back last night and looking around the car for more things to rip out (aka lighten it). I was literally shocked to find these still in the car! Gone now...maybe 10lbs total with screws and such, but every bit helps!